HERALDic Identity in Context: Data-Driven Exploration of Identities and the Interrelationship Between Group and Individual in Heraldic Communication Using an Ontology (Kingdom of France and Holy Roman Empire, 12th to 16th Century)

The project ‘Heraldic Identity in Context’ takes a comparative approach to explore how identities were conveyed through heraldic communication in the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. The project is based on a broad spectrum of heraldic sources and particularly examines how the position of the individual in relation to and within different groups can be better understood through heraldic sources. The research on heraldic sources is to be freed from outdated scientific approaches, whose methods and hypotheses have so far limited or distorted access to these rich sources. Based on a verified corpus of heraldic data and a digital, collaborative platform – the Digital Heraldry Research Environment – the project offers innovative methodological approaches to analysing heraldic communication. In particular, the project uses specially developed ontologies to describe heraldic devices in different contexts and media, thus enabling new perspectives on the interactions between individual and collective identity in heraldic communication.